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according to Gert Selle, curtains already serve as ‘an inviola-
ble symbolic boundary between one’s own space inside and
the hostile outside,’ in particular as a ‘protection against the
evil eye of the world’ (1993, 10). That to which Selle refers
as the ‘citadel mentality’ of residents is expressed in an un-
paralleled fashion by the English expression ‘my home is my
castle’.> materiality, ornament, service, sensory perception, space-
body continuum
> architecture, dramaturgy, entrance, image, scene, stairsIn contrast to the multiplicity of possible architectural con-
cepts and approaches to design, architecture has at its dis-
posal only a limited number of themes, whose significance
goes beyond the individual building task. The formulation
of an architectural theme always walks a fine line between
general validity and specific architectural content. In contrast
to the design idea as the designer’s individual solution to a
building task, an architectural theme lays claim to an intel-
lectual content having general validity. The ‘thematization of
architecture’, whose indispensability has been emphasized in
particular by Oswald Mathias Ungers (1983), links the expe-
rience of architectural actuality with the confrontation of a
‘world of ideas’.
Architectural themes, however, must not be confused
with themes of a general kind, even if these are of social rel-
evance, such as democracy, sustainability or authenticity. An
architectural theme instead deals with a specifically architec-
tural phenomenon, a particular spatial configuration, for ex-
ample. It is not only propounded conceptually, but also devel-
oped architecturally. Ungers, for example, refers to the ‘house
within the house’ as an architectural theme, that is to say the
multiple cladding of an architectural body, one that is ex-Texture
Theatre
Theme, architectural